Men from Minnesota and Maryland were arrested by state police troopers in Killingly on Saturday when police found $20,000 in synthetic marijuana in their rental car.

Shortly before 6:30 p.m. Saturday, state police from the Troop D barracks' Quality of Life Task Force and the Brooklyn resident trooper's office stopped a rental car with North Carolina plates along Route 12 near the Big Y supermarket.

The driver, Hassan Khalid, 28, allowed police to search the car, where they found about 22 pounds of synthetic marijuana and $3,000 in cash. The synthetic marijuana was individually packaged for bulk sale, in about 1,300 bags, and worth about $20,000, police said.

Khalid, 28, of Andover, Minn., and the passenger, Waseem Ahmad, 45, of Edgewood, Md., were each charged with possession of narcotics and possession narcotics with intent to tell. They are being held on $75,000 cash bonds and are due to be arraigned April 17 in Danielson Superior Court.

The investigation that led to the traffic stop and arrest Saturday was conducted by the Troop D Quality of Life Task Force, the Brooklyn resident trooper's office and the Statewide Narcotics Task Force - East office.

Anyone with information about the sale of narcotics and synthetic narcotics in Windham County is asked to contact the Troop D Quality of Life Task Force's anonymous tips hotline at (860) 779-4950.